European Softball Experience; Training With Tex Town Tigers in Enschede, Holland; European Cup- Caserta, Italy
By: Coach Michael Bastian ~ August 25, 2011
I just finished an eventful, amazing, exciting- and culturally humbling at times- two week trip to the European countries of Holland and Italy. I also spent time passing through Germany.
The first week there I was back with the Tex Town Tigers and my friend from Enschede, with Coach Monti VanBrunt, who has coached there before. We had an awesome week of training with the girls. One of the things we tried to do as coaches was try to change the culture and mentality of the players as quickly as possible in the short time we had. They had gone through a series of change and had many different coaches throughout the year and a kind of frustrating year, but with the talent we had going into the European Cup, I felt like we could play well. Basically we had some great defensive practices, and great pitching workouts with Lindsey Meadows, Jenna DeLong and some of the other pitchers. One of the most exciting things we focused on was making the hitters be aggressive and decisive. The word they didn’t like was I said “no kinda swings/no maybe swings” make it be yes or no. I’m proud to say that work paid off. Again, it was fun spending time with my friends in Enschede. Had fun with Bertil. On my way to go to Caserta, I made the mistake of leaving my bag in the back of his van- I thought he was helping me with my bags, but that’s my fault. My bag was left in Enschede as we were on the road to Düsseldorf to fly to Naples. It was a wild journey then to get my bag to me from Enschede to Caserta, but thanks to one of the Dutch National team member’s parent from Sparks, we got the bag from Schiphol in Amsterdam-got to the bag in early morning and they were able to carry it to me in Caserta, Italy. Everybody gave me a hard time about that- because I travel so much and lost my bag. With the Chinese girls, they always took care of my bags, and I always take care of my bags, but it was just a crazy situation on our bon voyage. Overall, it was a good week of training in Holland.
European Cup was a totally amazing experience, lots of fun, lots of good softball and lots of culture, many Americans there. We had a duel passport person Dutch and American in Lindsey Meadows, Jenna DeLong and Elena Leon from Drake University. Fun connection there with my coach, Rich Calvert, that I coached with at The Ohio State University, and Stephanie Clayton that went to Drake and is from Roxboro, NC. It was kind of a small world with all that coming together in meeting Jenna and Elena in Enschede through our relationships with Rich Calvert at Ohio State, and Stephanie Clayton through Roxboro. As you know, we ended up winning the European Cup and played very well. Jenna DeLong and Lindsey Meadows pitched well. Jenna was great offensively, and Karin Tuk was named the MVP and did a great job hitting. Overall it was a wonderful experience. We beat Sparks in the championship game, and had great wins over Caserta. Caserta was coached by my good friend Enrico Obletter, and they also had UCLA star pitcher Angelica Selden, who is from Northern California, where I grew up. Also, Kristie Fox, who played at the University of Arizona, but I also coached her on the USA Junior National Team in the World Championships in Nanjing, China. It was fun catching up with her. We also played the team Jourdes, from the Czech Republic. Some of the players I remember from doing clinics in Prague.
It was an interesting experience understanding the European softball status from coaching to management to players- I learned a lot trying to help. I had some disagreements with the umpires- I voiced my opinion and they made theirs known also. I was called “An American” a couple of times, which was interesting to profile me as a “bad guy coach from America.” Hopefully, we can all learn and grow from that. The Dutch softball culture and culture is different from the American culture and different from the Chinese culture. It is amazing to see the affect culture has on people and sports and how that culture affects relationships and communications if people are happy or unhappy. I was able to learn quite a bit from European Softball Federation Executive Ami Baran, who has a background at Ohio State and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel right now and travels around the world. Hopefully, I developed a great relationship with him.
Moving forward, it was great working with the young players and the players in Tex Town. Time went by too fast. I would like to thank the Tex Town Tigers for helping me to come. Hopefully I helped them develop in Tex Town and in Holland and Europe as a whole.
Also was able to see Caroline Powell in Olympia Haarlem and go to a practice one day. Was able to do some front toss and talked to the girls. Olympia Haarlem is in 4th place and qualified for the playoffs. They actually had a game with Tex Town Tigers right after the European Cup- lost to a score of 6-2, but Tex Town had to win by a +7 run margin, so Olympia Haarlem qualified for the Dutch playoffs. I would like to congratulate Coach Caroline Powell, a Team TFS athlete and Fastpitch School Student. I am very proud of her.
I just finished an eventful, amazing, exciting- and culturally humbling at times- two week trip to the European countries of Holland and Italy. I also spent time passing through Germany.
The first week there I was back with the Tex Town Tigers and my friend from Enschede, with Coach Monti VanBrunt, who has coached there before. We had an awesome week of training with the girls. One of the things we tried to do as coaches was try to change the culture and mentality of the players as quickly as possible in the short time we had. They had gone through a series of change and had many different coaches throughout the year and a kind of frustrating year, but with the talent we had going into the European Cup, I felt like we could play well. Basically we had some great defensive practices, and great pitching workouts with Lindsey Meadows, Jenna DeLong and some of the other pitchers. One of the most exciting things we focused on was making the hitters be aggressive and decisive. The word they didn’t like was I said “no kinda swings/no maybe swings” make it be yes or no. I’m proud to say that work paid off. Again, it was fun spending time with my friends in Enschede. Had fun with Bertil. On my way to go to Caserta, I made the mistake of leaving my bag in the back of his van- I thought he was helping me with my bags, but that’s my fault. My bag was left in Enschede as we were on the road to Düsseldorf to fly to Naples. It was a wild journey then to get my bag to me from Enschede to Caserta, but thanks to one of the Dutch National team member’s parent from Sparks, we got the bag from Schiphol in Amsterdam-got to the bag in early morning and they were able to carry it to me in Caserta, Italy. Everybody gave me a hard time about that- because I travel so much and lost my bag. With the Chinese girls, they always took care of my bags, and I always take care of my bags, but it was just a crazy situation on our bon voyage. Overall, it was a good week of training in Holland.
European Cup was a totally amazing experience, lots of fun, lots of good softball and lots of culture, many Americans there. We had a duel passport person Dutch and American in Lindsey Meadows, Jenna DeLong and Elena Leon from Drake University. Fun connection there with my coach, Rich Calvert, that I coached with at The Ohio State University, and Stephanie Clayton that went to Drake and is from Roxboro, NC. It was kind of a small world with all that coming together in meeting Jenna and Elena in Enschede through our relationships with Rich Calvert at Ohio State, and Stephanie Clayton through Roxboro. As you know, we ended up winning the European Cup and played very well. Jenna DeLong and Lindsey Meadows pitched well. Jenna was great offensively, and Karin Tuk was named the MVP and did a great job hitting. Overall it was a wonderful experience. We beat Sparks in the championship game, and had great wins over Caserta. Caserta was coached by my good friend Enrico Obletter, and they also had UCLA star pitcher Angelica Selden, who is from Northern California, where I grew up. Also, Kristie Fox, who played at the University of Arizona, but I also coached her on the USA Junior National Team in the World Championships in Nanjing, China. It was fun catching up with her. We also played the team Jourdes, from the Czech Republic. Some of the players I remember from doing clinics in Prague.
It was an interesting experience understanding the European softball status from coaching to management to players- I learned a lot trying to help. I had some disagreements with the umpires- I voiced my opinion and they made theirs known also. I was called “An American” a couple of times, which was interesting to profile me as a “bad guy coach from America.” Hopefully, we can all learn and grow from that. The Dutch softball culture and culture is different from the American culture and different from the Chinese culture. It is amazing to see the affect culture has on people and sports and how that culture affects relationships and communications if people are happy or unhappy. I was able to learn quite a bit from European Softball Federation Executive Ami Baran, who has a background at Ohio State and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel right now and travels around the world. Hopefully, I developed a great relationship with him.
Moving forward, it was great working with the young players and the players in Tex Town. Time went by too fast. I would like to thank the Tex Town Tigers for helping me to come. Hopefully I helped them develop in Tex Town and in Holland and Europe as a whole.
Also was able to see Caroline Powell in Olympia Haarlem and go to a practice one day. Was able to do some front toss and talked to the girls. Olympia Haarlem is in 4th place and qualified for the playoffs. They actually had a game with Tex Town Tigers right after the European Cup- lost to a score of 6-2, but Tex Town had to win by a +7 run margin, so Olympia Haarlem qualified for the Dutch playoffs. I would like to congratulate Coach Caroline Powell, a Team TFS athlete and Fastpitch School Student. I am very proud of her.
Comments